Resurrection
by Black Stormraven
Summary: Luke Skywalker asks for help from an unlikely source.


**Yeah, I don't know much of anything about what happened in the EU after RotJ except bits and pieces (I know about Mara and Ben and the NJO and whatnot, but no details) and I probably warped the timeline a bit, but here's my take on what might happen if Asajj is confirmed for Episode VII. You have no idea how excited and terrified I am if it happens, so I did this thing as one possible explanation for how Abrams can bring her in. And of course my shippiness wanted to come play, so there's that. Hope you enjoy!**

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Blue. One of the brightest blues she'd ever seen was the first thing she registered. The second was the blinding light that invaded her eye sockets. The third was the way her muscles ached when she tried to move her arms. It was as if they hadn't been used in a very long time. She blotted out the blue by closing her eyes against the searing light and the soreness in her limbs. Something about that color..._bothered her _wasn't the phrase, but it was close enough. Trying to think of a more suitable description was beyond her capacity at the moment. Every nerve in her body felt simultaneously cold and burning hot.

"Take it easy," a voice said above her. It was calm, soothing, yet also authoritative. Few people she'd known had spoken like that. "It's going to be tough to move for a few minutes, but you're safe."

Although the owner of the voice was unknown to her, she didn't have much choice but to obey it. As she lay there – whatever she was on was smooth and hard; a table of some sort? - memories began to resurface.

Feeling the systematic extermination of nearly every Force-sensitive in the galaxy.

Landing on the wasteland known as Tatooine once again.

Odd jobs here and there to keep her head down and off the Empire's spanners.

Finding an old...acquaintance.

An all-too-short night in his arms before taking a new job.

That job going south...

...looking up at the gargantuan mass of a Hutt before a sudden blast of cold engulfed her...

_Karkin' hell_, she thought as the memories fell into place. What a mess she'd gotten herself into. Now the only question was who this was beside her. And whatever that blue thing was.

Several deep breaths later and she felt like she could try to move again. This time was easier, but not by much. A pair of hands grabbed at her arm as she went to sit up; she snatched her arm back on instinct and the hands let go. "Go slow," the voice said. "Do you remember what happened to you?"

She opened her eyes and quickly snapped them shut against the light that assaulted them. Her hand pressed into her forehead to stave off the stabbing pain. It lessened in moments, thankfully, but it was still much too bright. "Bits and pieces," she croaked out; even her voice sounded like it hadn't been used in years.

"Sorry, it is kind of bright in here." The blackness behind her closed eyes deepened. _That's better. _"How's that?"

She nodded once (it was all she could manage without the nausea threatening to overtake her) and opened her eyes more fully. Wherever she was, it was definitely a medical facility, but unlike any she'd ever been in before. Everything looked...shinier than normal. Sleeker. Even the medical droid in the corner, deactivated for now, was of an advanced model she didn't recognize. "Where am I?"

"Coruscant."

That one word drove a spike of fear through her heart. Without a single second spared to think, her legs swung over the side of the table she was lying on, fully intent on running as far and fast as they could carry her. Instead, they refused to support her weight and crumpled beneath her. Her fear was too strong to let that stop her, though. She scrambled towards the exit as fast as she could, but it refused to open. With adrenaline rushing through her veins, she went for the next viable option: turning the first thing she could grab into a weapon.

"Hey hey! Calm down. You're safe, I promise." She didn't believe whomever was talking to her for an instant. Coruscant was never a welcome place for her during the Clone War, even less so in its aftermath when the brutality of the Empire replaced the hypocrisy of the Republic. Her fingers closed around something thin and metallic and held it in front of her like she would her lightsaber (if she still had even one of them, that is). To her continued shock, the device, a scalpel, flew out of her hand to clatter across the room.

Only then did she see the person who had been talking to her. Clad in black from neck to foot, he was a human male in his late-forties or early-fifties by her guess, but he exuded a confidence and an inner strength that made him see half that age. His expression was a mix of worried and wary, a look she had seen before on one other worthy of note. When he slowly crouched in front of her she was taken aback by his eyes.

They were the blue things she had seen upon first waking. Compassionate, strong, and full of light and youth, they reminded her instantly of another. "You're safe," the man repeated. "I promise, you're not in any danger."

Forcing herself to regain control of her breathing and rampaging thoughts, she looked him up and down while tentatively reaching out through the Force. There was no mistaking that aura: he was Force-sensitive, too. She felt him pull back and let her investigate; short of actually allowing her inside his head, he was showing remarkable trust in letting her feel him out. His attire gave no hint as to his allegiance. Not savage or threatening like the Sith preferred, but not light and innocuous like the Jedi, he reminded her more of some kind of monk or priest of some lost civilization than anything else. Not that that meant much to her right now, but not being able to even guess as to what side he belonged to frustrated her to no end.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

The man touched his chest as he lowered his head slightly, keeping his eyes on her just in case. "I'm Luke Skywalker." She flinched. Hard. "I'm a Jedi."

That flinch turned into a snort. "There are no Jedi anymore. Or don't you watch the HoloNet?"

"The what?"

She reeled. Everyone on Coruscant knew what the HoloNet was. It was almost as pervasive as oxygen on the city-planet. _How long have I been out of it?_

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions-"

"Just one. How long has it been since the Empire took over?" A fluttering in her chest turned into a very unpleasant tingle.

"A little over fifty years."

Fifty. _Fifty years. _Everything seemed to slow around her until she could almost feel the seconds ticking by. She thought back to the last thing she remembered seeing before waking up to this so-called Jedi standing over her.

She had been on a job in one of the bigger cities of Tatooine. It was supposed to be a simple search-and-apprehend mission. Not enough to ensure an early retirement, but it was better than nothing. She should have done her research before accepting the bounty. If she had, then she would have known that her mark was in the employ of Rotta the Hutt, the son of Jabba that she had kidnapped on Dooku's orders so long ago. Hutts tended to mature slowly, but apparently Jabba had thought Rotta was ready to start cultivating his own team of thugs and bodyguards.

She'd been captured and taken before both Rotta and Jabba, where the older Hutt recognized her as the one who had been responsible for Rotta's trauma as a Huttlet. Rather than kill her, the giant slug had had her encased in carbonite as a kind of trophy for his son.

Then she'd woken up here. Five decades spent in solid rock in forced cryogenic sleep.

"But," Skywalker continued before panic and anger could overwhelm her, "the Empire fell. Thirty years ago. Palpatine is dead. I've started rebuilding the Jedi Order to try to keep history from repeating itself."

Again, she snorted. "Right. Like it did so well the first time around."

Skywalker shook his head, but not impatiently. "I've changed a lot about it to try to make it better, but at its core it's the same as how I was taught it was."

Those words sparked another question, one that she was hesitant to ask. "The Jedi were wiped out and the Temple looted when the Empire rose. How do you know what it was like before?"

Those blue eyes looked momentarily stricken before a strange discomfort set in. "From my Master."

That tingling returned to her chest, this time caught between hope and denial. "And who might that be?"

He met her eyes again. "Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Asajj's heart fell to her stomach then lurched up to her throat. "And where is he?" She didn't bother to be disgusted with how small and weak she sounded.

Sadness emanated from him through the Force before being released. "He died."

Her shoulders sagged. Fifty years in carbonite, she shouldn't have been surprised he was gone by now. "How long?"

"Over thirty years ago." Now it was Skywalker's turn to sound small. "He started my training but died before he could finish it. He sent me to Master Yoda to complete my studies and become a true Jedi like my father."

That anger that she had stamped down now came back in full force to shove her sadness aside like a leaf in the wind. "Your _father _was a monster even when he called himself a Jedi," she snarled. "Arrogant beyond measure, cruel, manipulative, and possessive. You do know that he was the one responsible for the old Order's decimation, yes? I may have hated the Jedi on principle, but I had legitimate reasons to do so. They were his _kin _and he slaughtered them. Do you really want to follow in his footsteps, _Jedi_?"

Skywalker had gone quiet and still while she ranted. It had all built up for so long and now there was no stopping it. The fact that Skywalker's child (another of his hypocrisies) sat before her now infuriated her almost to blindness. This man claimed to be a Jedi, claimed to be rebuilding them now, and saw his forebearer as some great, noble Jedi to be emulated? Well, then she would be more than happy to smash that lie right into the ground.

But she didn't get the chance to keep going. "I know," he said softly. "There's still much about him that I don't understand, and a lot that horrifies me. But he wasn't always Darth Vader. He was human, and as a human he had faults and weaknesses just like everyone else." He paused and looked at her as if debating whether or not to say something else. "From what I was told, you weren't exactly a model citizen at one point either."

There was no accusation or hatred in his tone or his words, but they still struck her hard. She knew what she had been. She'd been a living weapon, uncaring about what happened to those in her path so long as she could please her Master. She'd committed unspeakable crimes against sentient life. But not once did she ever delude herself into thinking that what she was doing was for 'the greater good'. Not once did she pretend that she was a good person forced to do horrible things for the betterment of the galaxy.

Skywalker on the other hand did just that in addition to taking his own insecurities, resentment, and anger out on those whom he had called family. The blatant disloyalty made Asajj want to spit.

Instead, Luke's last words brought up another thought. "How do you know what I was like? You don't know anything about me."

"I know some," he replied in that same quiet, even tone. "Obi-Wan spoke of you sometimes."

Would this day have no end to surprises and shocks? Her throat constricted at the mention of Kenobi and her hatred of Anakin Skywalker was momentarily forgotten.

"Yeah, he told me about you. He would say that there was always a way for Light to shine in the blackest Darkness, then talk about you." A tiny smile appeared on the man's face. "He was very fond of you, you know."

The words sent a pang of regret through her breast. When she'd found him in the Wastes of Tatooine, she'd recognized that infinite grief and sadness that shrouded him like a blanket. Although it wasn't her area of expertise, she'd tried to offer some kind of comfort; she knew what it was like to lose everything one held most dear. As the day had worn on, they'd moved closer to each other in the small house until tentative and awkward words evolved into burning caresses and breathless sighs. That night the attraction that had bound them together even when they were enemies had finally been satisfied...and it had scared her.

When she'd awoken the next morning, his arms were around her, clinging to her as if she were his only link to life itself. She'd have been lying if she'd said the feeling of security that had come with his embrace had been unpleasant. In fact, she'd loved it. That was why she'd left so quickly. It wasn't that she couldn't trust him; she didn't trust herself. To allow herself to fall in further with her once-enemy was dangerous for both of them. She'd said her goodbye, not trusting herself to look back, and took on that ill-fated apprehension mission.

Back in the present, that regret burned hotter as the minutes went on. The last time she'd seen Kenobi she'd left him with little more than a 'so long'. Now she wondered what he had done in his final years, if he'd drowned in his grief or pushed past it, if he'd spent all that time on his own...

Skywalker's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "If I didn't know any better, I could swear he was almost...in love with you." Asajj's head jerked up to meet his eyes, searching for any sign of mocking. There was none. "He wrote about you in his journal. And even though he only talked about you a few times, I always thought there was more he wanted to say. But he always held back."

It was too much. All of this – her lost time, coming face-to-face with Skywalker's spawn, finding out Kenobi had spoken of her at all, this Skywalker attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order – was too much. The back of her throat burned as tears threatened to fill her eyes. Everything was too overwhelming and she couldn't even run from it, not with her muscles still atrophied.

Skywalker reached out to her shoulder with a black-gloved hand. She flinched but didn't shake him off. There was comfort in his touch, his expression, his Force signature, his words. "I didn't mean to upset you. I just wanted you to know how highly he thought of you."

More minutes passed before Asajj regained control over her emotions. It had to be an aftereffect of the carbonite. She was never this emotional. It had already been an exhausting day and she'd only just woken up.

She took a deep breath, feeling the clean oxygen fill her lungs and spread through her chest and limbs. Apart from her own selfish desire to know more about what Keno- Obi-Wan had said about her, there was something else that she wanted to know. "Okay, so you woke me up. Why?"

Skywalker slowly removed his hand from her shoulder when he saw her shields fall back into place. "Someone told me there was a slim chance you might be interested in helping me with rebuilding the Order. I figured it was worth a shot to ask."

"Really. And what empty-headed nerfherder told you that fairy tale?" The very idea would have been laughable if it weren't so insulting.

"Ouch," came another voice, one that froze the very blood in her veins. "Even in death you still manage to wound me, my sweet."

Her breath fled when she looked up and saw _that face_. He looked exactly the same as she remembered, only without the crushing guilt and sadness. In fact, he looked almost happy. If not for the surreal glow that surrounded him and the transparency of his form she would have sworn he was still flesh and bone.

"No word of greeting, Asajj?" he chuckled. "You were always so courteous before."

She glanced at Skywalker, who wore a grin similar to that of Obi-Wan. "Yes, that's really him."

It took every ounce of strength she had to stand on her own, refusing Skywalker's offered arm. She kept her eyes fixed on Obi-Wan's smiling visage as she carefully walked towards him. The Force told her that he was indeed standing right there in front of her, but part of her didn't want to believe it. He was dead. Had been dead for a long time. But here he was, trying to playfully lure her into the comfortable banter that they'd perfected during the Clone War.

Asajj wanted to smack him. She wanted to curse him out in every language she knew. She wanted to draw him into her arms and never let go. Most of all she wanted to chew him out. Instead, she only managed two words: "You're late."

Obi-Wan bowed his head. "I do apologize for that, my dear. But it took some time for Luke to find you in Rotta's...collection."

She noticed how he said that word with distaste, but that wasn't important right now. "So instead of looking for me yourself, while you were still alive, I might add, you send Skywalker's whelp to do it. And not only that, but you had the nerve to tell him I'd help rebuild the Jedi Order?" Her voice rose with each word, her emotions getting the better of her. At least some things didn't change. "Has being dead made you lose what little mind you had left, Kenobi?"

Obi-Wan had the grace to lower his eyes. Honestly, he knew her better than that. He knew how deep her hatred of his Order went. He knew why she hated it so much. Yet he still thought she'd have anything to do with building it back up? "I know it's a lot to ask," he said quietly. "But I had hoped that you would reconsider when Luke told you how he would change it. Improve it." He stepped forward. She stayed still. "The Order was my life, the only one I'd ever known. But it wasn't without its faults. Even Master Yoda recognized that part of what led to its downfall was its reluctance to evolve. It remained stuck in the past to the point of blindness." He looked up and met her eyes, glancing briefly at Luke, who stood off to the side so as not to interrupt. "I still believe in the Order, but it's time that it be brought into the present. I believe Luke can do that..."

Asajj crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a hard stare. "I feel a 'but' coming on."

A flicker of a smile crossed his ghostly face then. "But, he can't do it alone. One person shouldn't bear that burden without support." His gaze turned pleading at that moment; it was the same look he'd given her when she left him on Tatooine so long ago. What kept that look from being begging was the sense that he wouldn't demand anything of her; he just wanted to ask. "Asajj, you were trained as a Jedi once. It was one of the most important things to you before your Master was killed. I know you think yourself beyond redemption or forgiveness, but you could fulfill that dream and have a hand in creating a new Order not bound by the hypocrisy you once saw in it." He took another step until less than a hand's width of space remained between them. "This is a chance to make the Order better, Asajj, as well as providing a safe haven for all Force-sensitives in the galaxy. Would you throw that away because of your past prejudices?"

She stared at him for a long time. First he shows up (dead, no less) and talks as if not a day has gone by since the war, then he expects her to not only help rebuild the very Order she had spent most of her life hating, but to do so at the side of Skywalker's offspring? There was nothing about Luke that suggested he was like his father, but she didn't trust him on principle. Who was to say that he wouldn't snap just like 'the Chosen One'? And if he did, who was to say it wouldn't be worse than what Anakin Skywalker had done?

But Obi-Wan's words had stuck a nerve. She had indeed wanted nothing more than to be a Jedi when she was a child. The loss of her Master all but guaranteed she would never see that dream come true. Her anger and grief had led her to turn a spiteful eye to the Order that she believed had left her Master to die. She'd had her beliefs about the Order smashed by that one incident, and that hatred had been nurtured by Dooku when he'd taken her into his service. It was difficult if not impossible to undo a lifetime of distrust. But the real question now was, did she even want to try?

A long, heavy sigh escaped her lips. "Let me ask you this: why me?"

Obi-Wan's expression turned instantly from cautiously hopeful to patiently amused. "Do you not know? I believe in you, my dear. I always have." She started at those words. Was he being serious? "Whether you want to believe it or not, you're not an irredeemable monster. There has always been such potential in you for great things. The Dark Side lured you away from that for a while, but you walked away from it. Do you know how much strength and conviction that took?" His hand twitched for a moment, almost too subtle to see. But Asajj saw it. "I have faith that together, you and Luke can build something truly magnificent with the new Order." His smile suddenly widened as if he'd just heard the funniest joke in the universe. "Besides, I know how much you like giving orders and being in charge. What better way to do that than this?"

Although she would never admit it aloud, she almost wanted to smile at that. Instead, she looked down at her feet as if they would have the answer. Obi-Wan _believed _in her. Dooku had had faith in her skills, but not in _her_. To him she was as expendable as a super battle droid; the loss would have been irritating, but not detrimental. Now Obi-Wan was telling her in no small terms that she was valuable as a person. She had no doubt that he was telling the truth; she would have felt it through the Force if he wasn't. Besides, he was a terrible liar, and it wasn't in his nature to manipulate people in such a way.

"For the sake of argument," she began slowly, "let's say I agree to this insanity. What would you have me do?"

Obi-Wan looked to Luke, who stepped up beside them. "I would only ask that you do what you think is right. If Obi-Wan trusts you and your judgment, then so do I."

Asajj smirked. Well, he was certainly proving a far cry from his father so far. That was one point in his favor. "Don't be so quick to trust me yet, Jedi. How do you know we wouldn't end up at each other's throats the first time we came to a disagreement?"

Skywalker shrugged. "I don't." Another point for honesty. "But that's part of why I think this would work. If I wanted someone to agree with me all the time, there are plenty of them out there. I want someone who's going to strive for what's right, not what's easy."

Asajj hated to admit it, but she was impressed. "Are you sure this is Anakin Skywalker's son?" she asked Obi-Wan.

He didn't laugh, but he did smile good-naturedly. "Positive." A sudden sobriety came into his eyes then. "Luke, would you mind giving us a moment?"

"Of course, Master." Skywalker nodded once at Asajj, a faint hope shining in his gaze, before gesturing at the door. It slid open and he disappeared into a hallway.

Now it was just Asajj and Obi-Wan. She felt suddenly uncomfortable in the ensuing silence. "I'm sorry. For...leaving you like I did on Tatooine."

"There's nothing you need to apologize for Asajj. I understand." Now it was his turn to look uneasy. He looked away and his voice went soft. "For what it's worth, I'm glad we met again. I hadn't realized..."

She stepped to the side to try to meet his eyes. "What?"

He answered by stepping closer and reaching out towards her hand. He stopped just short of her fingers; Asajj found herself wanting very much to feel his touch again. But that was a fool's desire since he was now a non-corporeal figure. "I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed you."

The words were simple, able to be interpreted any number of ways. But they struck her like a blaster bolt just the same. "You missed being around people," she rationalized quietly. "You had to have been alone in that desert for a while before I came along."

The shaking of his head stopped her from continuing. "No. I missed _you_. I thought I had put all thought of those I'd known firmly in the past. I had started to learn to live with my isolation." A sad smile turned up the corners of his mouth. "But then you showed up on my doorstep. I still don't know how you found me or what your intentions were, but when I saw you I was...happy. Relieved, even. I never knew what had become of you after the war. Seeing you there...I'll always be grateful for that, for the...comfort you gave me." Even though he was little more than a figure of light and energy now, she could swear he was blushing. "I think it was something I needed very much."

A bittersweet sensation flowed over her at those words. "I should have stayed. I'm not a good person, but leaving like that was just heartless."

Obi-Wan shook his head again. "You did what you needed to do. It would have been wrong of me to expect you to stay. You still had your own life to live."

Annoyance at herself chased away her regret for the moment. "Some life. Living hand-to-mouth on questionable jobs, falling in bad with a pair of Hutts, waking up to find that more than fifty years have gone by. You want to switch places?"

"No, no thank you," he laughed. "Being dead isn't all that bad."

She grinned. At least he still had his sense of humor. Despite knowing she would meet only air, she lifted a hand and reached for him. Just as she'd thought, her fingers passed through his without the slightest resistance. "So." She needed to change the subject. The atmosphere was getting too heavy for her liking. "How did Skywalker know where to find me?"

"I don't think he did. He and his friends had dealt with Rotta the Hutt on a different matter and were going through his sanctuary. Luke found you and remembered me talking about you." He looked away again. "He was going to revive you anyway, but I suggested that he ask you to help with the Order. Call it a knee-jerk reaction.

"If I'd known what had happened to you, I would have gone looking for you without a second thought. But I didn't know. It wasn't until Luke contacted me asking me to confirm your identity that I knew you were even still alive." His shoulders lifted in a half-shrug. "I thought this might be a way for you to start over if you wanted, so that you can become the person you want to be, not the one others expect."

Asajj had to take a long moment to let that sink in. She had no doubt that he would have searched for her if he'd known she was still on Tatooine and in the clutches of a Hutt-spawn. She wasn't angry at him for that, not anymore. In fact, she was more in a state of disbelief than actual anger or denial. After everything she'd done, he still thought she had a flicker of goodness in her? Did _she _want to believe that flicker was there?

A light chuckle cut through the air as she continued pondering this development. "You never give up, do you, Obi-Wan."

"Not at all, my darling," he replied with a grin that would have been smug if not for the tentative happiness that flooded from him through the Force. "Does that mean you'll consider it?"

Asajj took a deep breath. "I think I have my answer." She made for the door, pleased that her legs didn't give out on her. The pins-and-needles sensation was irritating, but that would go away before long. She paused when the door opened and looked back. "Will I see you again anytime soon?"

Now his smile was bright and genuine, not bogged down by conflicting emotions. "I think it's fair to say most definitely. After all, who else is going to step in if you and Luke end up butting heads?"

Asajj returned his smile. "You'd be the only one fool enough to do it." With one more look at her last link to what little good she'd had in her past life, she left the room in search of the newest leader of the Jedi.

She found him in the main hall (she was in the Jedi Temple, apparently, though it was slightly different than she remembered), gazing up at a bronzium bust in a line of statues. Even though she didn't see him in his later years, she knew the bust was that of Obi-Wan, older and more haggard than he'd just appeared to her, but with the same charisma and steadfast strength she'd always known.

Luke turned to her, his hands clasped behind his back, and waited for her to speak first. She did so without wasting a second. "When do we start?"


End file.
